1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coupling member for the face end coupling of profile bars that are composed particularly of light metal and have undercut longitudinal grooves covered by profile walls except for an opening slit in such a way that a first profile bar is butt-jointed with one of its face ends to a side wall of a second profile bar and the coupling member is inserted into longitudinal grooves that align in one plane, comprising an elongated counter holder that is insertable into the longitudinal groove of the first profile bar and a tension tie incorporating both, a shaped head that is to be inserted into the longitudinal groove of the second profile bar and hooks into the profile wall of the longitudinal groove from behind, and a shaft that is connected to the counter holder, as it is known, for example, from DE 42 10 456 C2.
2. Object and Summary of the Invention
The present invention has made it its object to provide a coupling member according to the preamble that has a particularly simple design and permits a coupling of two profile bars at their face ends within the shortest possible time and either without, or with only the simplest tools.
This object is met according to the invention with a coupling member, particularly of steel, for the face end coupling of profile bars that are composed particularly of light metal and have undercut longitudinal grooves covered by profile walls except for an opening slit in such a way that a first profile bar is butt-jointed with one of its face ends to a side wall of a second profile bar and the coupling member is inserted into longitudinal grooves that align in one plane, comprising an elongated counter holder that is insertable into the longitudinal groove of the first profile bar and a tension tie incorporating both, a shaped head that is to be inserted into the longitudinal groove of the second profile bar and hooks into the profile wall of the longitudinal groove from behind, and a shaft that is connected to a counter holder. The coupling member wherein the counter holder is pivotally connected to the tension tie by means of a pivot that that hooks from underneath into the profile walls adjacent to the opening slit and is provided on one side with a tooth system that penetrates at least partially into the profile wall in the region of the groove bottom of the longitudinal groove when the coupling member is tightened by pivoting the counter holder from an insertion position. The counter holder projects from the longitudinal groove, to a tightened position, in which the counter holder is received inside the longitudinal groove, so that the counter holder moves away from the second profile bar during tensioning, resulting in a fastening of the profile bars.
The shaft may have a centering section adjacent to the shaped head, the thickness of which corresponds to the width of the opening slit of the longitudinal grooves. The centering section may have lateral flattened areas, the distance of which from one another corresponds to the width of the opening slit of the longitudinal groove. The shaped head may have lateral flattened areas, the distance of which from one another is smaller than the width of the opening slit of the longitudinal groove.
The counter holder advantageously has a width that corresponds to the width of the opening slit of the longitudinal groove.
The counter holder preferably has a forked section with two parallel legs that encompass a flattened end section of the shaft, and the pivot extends through the legs and the flattened end section.
A locking tooth is preferably disposed on each leg. The locking tooth may be designed barb-like.
The counter holder is advantageously designed at its free end section to cooperate with an assembly tool.
Provision is preferably made for the counter holder to have a securing means that cooperates with the profile wall of the longitudinal groove in a frictional or form-fitting manner in order to prevent an unintentional releasing or pivoting out of the tightened position.